Office Space Tight At New Hilles

A month after some freshmen grieved over housing placements in the Quad, student groups showed mixed reactions upon receiving office and storage space assignments in the new Student Organization Center at Hilles Friday afternoon.

While most groups were pleased with the assignments, which were made by the Committee on College Life (CCL) Subcommittee on Student Organization Space, some groups were dissatisfied by the amount of space allocated.

The subcommittee is chaired by Assistant Dean of the College Paul J. McLoughlin II and comprises undergraduates and CCL memberts hand-picked by McLoughlin.

“This is probably the most unprecedented amount of space that any college has given any student groups,” McLoughlin said.

“We’re excited to be in a space where it will be easier to work together with other student groups,” said Mischa A. Feldstein ’07, co-chair of the Harvard Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA). The BGLTSA does not currently have office space, although a resource center not affiliated with the organization is housed in Holworthy basement.

Others, however, felt the assignments were not sufficient.

Native Americans at Harvard College (NAHC) was granted only storage space, although the group applied for office space. “I think it really reflects poorly on the college because we are the only undergraduate group for American Indians,” said NAHC President Leah R. Lussier ’07.

Lussier added that the group was disappointed especially because most other ethnic groups were granted office space, whether single or shared.

The Harvard College Democrats was another group that was dissatisfied. Dems President Eric P. Lesser ’07 said the group applied for the largest office space available, but received a significantly smaller assignment.

“I don’t know what usefulness this office is going to have for us. It’s completely different from what we applied for,” Lesser said.

“The group is growing and growing, but it fractures and atomizes. This office would have been a chance to centralize everything.”

But McLoughlin noted that having any space was better than no space at all, which was the situation of many groups prior to the new Hilles center.

The current arrangements are only on a one-year basis, according to McLoughlin, and all student groups will have an opportunity to reapply for office space next year.

“This is a huge commitment on the college, but because we can’t give all student groups offices, we have to make sure that the groups we assign offices use them valuably.”

But Rebecca R. Rojer ’09, communications manager for the Harvard Computer Society, said that reapplying every year was excessive.

“Moving around defeats the purpose of having an office space,” she said.

According to McLoughlin, in reviewing student group applications for space, the subcommittee first determined if a group deserved space at all.

Then they reviewed the group’s activity level, contribution to the community, and club membership to determine whether the group would need a shared or single office.

Finally, groups assigned to shared space were arranged according to similarity of goals, in addition to requests from the groups themselves noted on the application.

McLoughlin added that groups that would not have been granted space individually due to low membership were combined with other groups to allow for them to receive an office.

Amadi P. Anene ’08, a member of the subcommittee, said that different student groups would now be able to share resources and interact with each other more frequently.

“Hilles has the potential to transform the nature of our college,” Anene said. “We thought it would be great for groups to have a collaborative culture.”

Anene said that the center will have a “corporate feel.”

The walls will be translucent, which McLoughlin said would create a feeling of “activity and bustling space” while simultaneously maintaining privacy.

The center will also feature a coffee bar, where students of all organizations will be able to interact.

—Staff writer Elaine Chen can be reached at chen23@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Joyce Y. Zhang can be reached at jyzhang@fas.harvard.edu.